Ben Okafor – Nkiru – 1989

Occasionally I just take a day and root through a record company library to see what I find. This is one I found while rooting through the Refuge library. I’d never heard of the artist though actually he’s relatively well known for the period. Ben claims to have grown up as a child soldier in Nigeria. These stories don’t usually end well but his does as he was able to immigrate to the U.K. He was actually a well known artist in the anti apartheid movement and shared the stage with several prominent artists at that time. He has continued on with his somewhat unique style today. As for that style I would best describe it as pop oriented folk reggae. The industry refers to it as Afrikanese reggae but I don’t care for that description so I’ll go with mine.

Tracklist
1 – Wake Up – 4:38
2 – Got Me Running – 4:56
3 – Oke Na Ngwele – 2:55
4 – Man Of Sorrow – 4:28
5 – I Need Love – 5:17
6 – Raise Your Conscience – 5:10
7 – Filippino – 3:33
8 – World Gone Crazy – 3:57
9 – No Matter What It Is – 4:27
10 – Look Out – 2:34